variant vs departure

variant and departure both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
variant	Yes	Yes	No	No
departure	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, departure is a hypernym of variant; that is, departure is a word with a broader meaning than variant:

Other hypernyms of variant include deviation, difference, divergence.

variant (noun)	departure (noun)
a variable quantity that is random	the act of departing
something a little different from others of the same type	euphemistic expressions for death
an event that departs from expectations	a variation that deviates from the standard or norm
(biology) a group of organisms within a species that differ in trivial ways from similar groups

variant (adjective)	departure (adjective)
differing from a norm or standard
exhibiting variation and change